The Vans combi bowl contest is not about competition. It’s about a gathering of a family of skateboarders, a special breed of skater whose inspiration comes from decades of legendary bowl terrain and present day creations inspired by those concrete playgrounds. The Vans combi pool is a tribute to the old Upland skatepark in Upland and the relatively few and proud of the skate population who dare to ride it, tear it up and show due respect by hauling ass and grinding hard. This year’s contest brought bowl riding to a whole new level with guys like Omar, Rune, Bucky, Miller, Grosso, Salba, Lincoln, and Burnquist to name a few. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any gnarlier, Miller backside bluntslides the entire corner, Jimmy the Greek pulled out a padless run that no man should have survived, Burnquist pulled an alley oop nosepick down the hip to revert, Willy from Seattle pulled a boneless jump from the stands into the round bowl, Grosso did 20 plus block rock n’ roll slides, Lincoln did overhead body jars, Omar did mach 10 roll in lipslides through the whole round bowl, Cabby pulled fakie flips and boneless ones with style like no other, Rune backside kickflip lipslides everywhere, Ben Schroeder actually did a sweeper disaster on the main hip and skated as gnarly as he ever has, Cookiehead went overhead with Hosoi-like style, Salba skated gnarlier then I’d ever seen him with big lipslides throwing up huge Indy airs, and the young gun Josh Borden blew minds with 540s and big lip combos. Benji kicked ass plain and simple and Bucky skated with a broken arm and did air to fakies through the corner to switch frontside airs through the other corner. The highlight of the night is when you had five people skating the combi pool at the same time skating above and around each other and every body slamming into each other, making the crowd scream on such a frenzied fury that it bordered on a riot. This is a gathering you have to witness if you love riding pools. To see the legends ride, is a vision you will take to your grave. Thanks to Vans and Pro-Tec for keeping it real and supporting pool riding for those of us that have always loved it and for those that are just discovering it. Thanks to Chris Overholser for the great organization, and a big thanks to Steve Van Doren who always goes beyond the call of duty. It is the most hard-core event of the year, so let’s keep it going.